Permissions

The 2020 SHIFT Residency Exhibition

November 18, 2020–January 9, 2021

Curated by Maya Suess

Hernease Davis
Asha Ganpat
Guido Garaycochea
Joy Garnett
Gi (Ginny) Huo
Jordan Lord
Shona Masarin
Monika Wührer

EFA Project Space presents Permissions, an exhibition of new works produced during the 2019/20 SHIFT Residency. There is no way to introduce this exhibition without acknowledging that the works were created during a time of unexpected upheaval and a profound shift to the infrastructure of our lives. As the world moved into a time of global pandemic, economic upheaval, and a deep reckoning with systemic racism, the SHIFT residents were invited to make new bodies of work.

The works in this exhibition ask us to rest, to escape, to create fantastical worlds, to devise our own symbols, to leave town, to stay home, to choose how we respond to ourselves, to others, and the systems we live in. They remind us that we can ask for, offer, take or give ourselves permission.

EFA Project Space’s SHIFT Residency for Arts Workers was launched in August 2010 to provide studio space and peer support for practicing artists who also work as arts professionals for organizations in New York City. This program honors these individuals with a unique environment to build on their own art practices. For 2020-2021, eight residents were selected based on their outstanding contributions to the art community plus their potential for artistic growth through a shared experience. The unique nature of SHIFT Residency draws out unspoken challenges and considerations in the lives of its participating artists, who dedicate a significant portion of their time towards supporting other artists and the art community.

ABOUT THE VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

This virtual exhibition seeks to provide other means of experiencing the work produced for the exhibition Permissions, installed at EFA Project Space from November 18, 2020 - January 9, 2021. Though much of the material provided here is “documentation” of the exhibition installed at 323 W 39th St., the material offered here seeks to dislocate where and when an “in-person” experience of an artwork or exhibition takes place. This document is the result of ongoing conversations among the SHIFT cohort, EFA staff, and curator Maya Suess and combines text, image, video, audio, and sensory description to render the exhibition Permissions accessible to virtual audiences. These pages can be navigated by clicking on the names of the artists listed above or below. All text is screenreader accessible. On each page, there is an image gallery with installation views as well as descriptions for each work that provide visual, contextual, and other sensory information. There is recorded audio of all descriptions, accessible via Soundcloud.

Both the audio description and a PDF transcript of this text will be available via QR code in the gallery.

EVENTS

Thursday, October 22, 2020, 3:30-5 PM
SHIFT: A Residency for Art Workers Panel – The Pandemic Cohort

Wednesday, December 2, 2020, 6-8 PM
Permissions: Virtual Opening Reception and Online Viewing Room Launch Party

Wednesday, December 9, 2020, 8-10 PM
Amelia Bande and Rachel Higgins: Static Erratic

Saturday, January 9, 2021, 5-7 PM
Permissions Closing Reception: Screening & Catalog Release

Photography by Yann Chashanovski

Gi (Ginny) Huo, 7 Steps to Circle Around the Moon (detail), 2020, 96 x 68 ½ x 11 inches, wood, acrylic and charcoal on paper. [Image description: A cut-out photograph of what appears to be a white person’s hand emerges against a painted backdrop of blue waves and curving white lines.]

Gi (Ginny) Huo, 7 Steps to Circle Around the Moon (detail), 2020, 96 x 68 ½ x 11 inches, wood, acrylic and charcoal on paper.

[Image description: A cut-out photograph of a light-skinned person’s hand emerges against a painted backdrop of blue waves and curving white lines.]

[Image Description: A view of the Project Space gallery as you enter. A former manufacturing space, the gallery shows residual traces of its industrial past – grey-painted concrete floors, white concrete beams running along the ceiling, industrial radiators and conduits. An 8’ high white wall with the exhibition text on the left side of the image frames out a viewing alcove on the right side containing the work of Hernease Davis. (Read more about Hernease Davis’ work here)
Hernease’s work consists of long swaths of fabric with blue cyanotype exposures that range in color from bright blue to almost black clustered in a semi-circle in the center of the space. The fabric pieces are suspended from the ceiling with hand-woven twine. The wall behind the hanging works is also painted in cyanotype exposure fluid in a pattern that could resemble seagrass. A row of aluminum windows on the right side of the image looks out onto a building just across West 39th Street.]

[Image Description: A wide shot shows the whole gallery. Directly ahead is the square white wall with Jordan Lord’s work hung just below the wall’s center point. To its right is the gap leading to Guido Garaycochea’s pink room, a line of paintings hanging on the right wall. To the right of that is Gi (Ginny) Huo’s brightly colored geometric sculptures. One the left side of the center wall stands Monika Wuhrer’s dry toilet, and the wall of industrial windows. Shona Masarin’s grid of prints is partly visible on the back wall.]

Left to right:
Monika Wuhrer, Nature’s Calling, 2020, reclaimed materials (wood), metal, plastic, markers, toilet paper, sawdust, 8' tall, 55" x 35". Read more here.
Jordan Lord, Assumption of Risk, 2020, waiver form, frame, caption (dimensions variable).
Gi (Ginny) Huo, 7 Steps to Circle Around the Moon, 2020, 96 x 68 ½ x 11 inches, wood, acrylic and charcoal on paper.
Gi (Ginny) Huo, Glimpse, 2020, 34 x 24 x 34 inches, acrylic paint on wood, plaster, metallic print
Gi (Ginny) Huo, Remember, 2020, 34 x 24 x 34 inches, acrylic paint on wood, plaster, metallic print
Gi (Ginny) Huo, Forget, 2020, 34 x 24 x 34 inches, acrylic paint on wood, plaster, metallic print

[Image Description: An installation image of the exhibition as you turn right into the gallery. One large and three small sculptural works by Gi (Ginny) Huo fill the right side of the image, bright blue painted paper cascades down the salmon pink stepped sculpture. To the left of these sculptures is a gap between the walls, through which you can see the windows at the back of the gallery. On the other side of the gap there is a square white wall with one small frame hung more than half way down the wall. To the left of that is the free standing Dry Toilet structure similar to an out-house, made by Monika Wuhrer from found plywood and other materials and painted slate grey. (Read more about Monika Wuhrer’s work here). The door is open and the white walls inside are visible. Behind them is the row of windows that line one side of the gallery.]

Left to right:
Jordan Lord, Assumption of Risk, 2020, waiver form, frame, caption (dimensions variable). Read more here.
Gi (Ginny) Huo, 7 Steps to Circle Around the Moon, 2020, 96 x 68 ½ x 11 inches, wood, acrylic and charcoal on paper. Read more here.
Gi (Ginny) Huo, Glimpse, 2020, 34 x 24 x 34 inches, acrylic paint on wood, plaster, metallic print
Gi (Ginny) Huo, Remember, 2020, 34 x 24 x 34 inches, acrylic paint on wood, plaster, metallic print
Gi (Ginny) Huo, Forget, 2020, 34 x 24 x 34 inches, acrylic paint on wood, plaster, metallic print
Joy Garnett, Microfictions, 2020, Instagram stories video, silent (r/t: 3m17s). Read more here.
Joy Garnett, Microfictions, 2020, archival prints on moab, 19x13 inches each, A/P.

[Image Description: A rectangular gallery with grey concrete floors and white walls, with many industrial pipes and track lights running across the white ceiling. At center, an installation grouping of brightly colored geometric sculptural works by Gi (Ginny) Huo, at right, flat text-based wall works and a monitor displaying a blue silhouetted body by Joy Garnett, at left, a small black-framed text piece by Jordan Lord standing alone in the center of a long white wall. An open doorway reveals an adjacent room, painted bright pink with a strip of gold-lamé wallpaper running across the middle of the wall, partially showing three figurative painting-collage works by Guido Garaycochea.]

Asha Ganpat, Muzzle, 2018, linen bobbin lace. 
Asha Ganpat, Full Face Mask, 2019, linen bobbin lace. Read more here.
Asha Ganpat, Gag, 2020, linen bobbin lace.
Asha Ganpat, Blinder, 2018, linen bobbin lace.
Asha Ganpat, IDGAF, 2019, linen bobbin lace.
Asha Ganpat, Do Not Touch, 2019, wire lace, metal, electricity.

[Image Description: A view of the back corner of the gallery, showing Asha Ganpat’s work. A rectangular gallery with a slate grey floor and white walls and bright spot lights illuminating Asha Ganpat’s small white lace pieces, which are barely visible from this distance. On the right wall there is a monitor showing a close-up of someone’s fingers. Behind the right wall, a sliver of the room where Guido Garaycochea’s work is hung is visible, showing pink walls and a line of gold wallpaper and two of Guido’s paintings. In the foreground is a white rectangular bench.

Left to right:
Shona Masarin, Untitled (Chasm) (work in progress), 2020-ongoing, 16mm film transferred to HD video, silent, 2:28 min.
Shona Masarin, A Tomb, a Womb, a Chasm (series), 2020, chromogenic prints, 30” x 37.39” each. 

[Four large prints made by Shona Masarin are hanging on the back wall of the gallery, they are arranged in a grid of four hung vertically. The prints are blue, black and white abstract shapes both in and out of focus. To the left of the prints are the wall of windows, and a large monitor sitting on the window ledge. The image on the monitor is mostly black but small light shapes similar to the prints are visible. There are two rails on the ceiling where lights are hanging, from the rail on the right three lights point toward the wall, where three of Asha’s lace pieces hang, barely visible. In the foreground sits the white bench.]

[Image Description: A long shot of the gallery, the grid of Shona Masarin’s abstract prints hang on the back wall and bright white spots shine on the right where Asha Ganpat’s pieces are hanging. The back wall of Guido Garaycochea’s pink room is visible through an opening in the walls, as are two of his square paintings - the canvases divided into grids and painted in bright warm tones. Above the white temporary wall of the gallery, a pink glow emanates from the pink walls. On the outside of the wall hangs a white particle board with holes, like you would see in a workshop, on it papers, photographs, a screwdriver and other ephemera hang in clusters. The slate grey floors reflect the lights above.

Guido Garaycochea, Faded dreams room, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas. 24" x 24".
Guido Garaycochea, I'm always watching you, you can't hide from me, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24".
Guido Garaycochea, I am a shy girl, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24".
Guido Garaycochea, Greer Lankton's dolls, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24".
Guido Garaycochea, Sarah and Page, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24".
Guido Garaycochea, Angel Rooster, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24” x 24”.
Guido Garaycochea, The small meditation hotel, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24”
Guido Garaycochea, The afterparty is over, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24”
Guido Garaycochea, Ignoring the exhibit, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24”.
Guido Garaycochea, Those little games of the little house, 2019-20, mixed media collage on canvas, 24" x 24”.
Guido Garaycochea, Altarpiece of the divine twigs, 2019, wooden box, branches, cold ceramic, plastic grass, oil paint, 10" x 8" x 5".

[Image Description: The installation of Guido Garaycochea’s painting-collages and sculpture work sits within a 10’ x 15’ rectangular room which is painted bright pink with a strip of gold-lamé wallpaper running across the middle of the wall and gold, textured fabric bunched up on the top section of the wall, which gives the impression of an opulent window treatment. A grouping of three figurative painting-collage works by Garaycochea are featured prominently on the wall on the right, with two smaller groupings of two and three paintings to the left and on the wall directly in front of you. An open doorway to the left leads out to the adjoining gallery with work by Monika Wuhrer, Shona Masarin, and Asha Ganpat.]